Birders aflutter after sightings of rare falcon in St. John's

A ghostly white figure caused a stir on Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's Wednesday.

A white morph gyrfalcon joined a grey morph to dine on a fresh Iceland gull.

"To see two plumages of that bird that close is quite exciting for a photographer like myself," said Clyde Thornhill, who managed to snapa few shots of the birds.

Thornhill said he was just one of about twelve birders summoned down to the lake by a flurry of excited text messages from a fellow birder.

The gyrfalcon is the world's largest falcon, according to the Audubon Guide to North American Birds, and the white morph is particularly uncommon.

• Rare white gyrfalcon spotted in Eel River Bar area
• Rarely seen white morph gyrfalcon spotted in New Brunswick

Thornhill saidthat even when the falcons do head south for Canada, birders rarely get to see much of them.

"They're fast-flying birds, you only get a glimpse of them."

Thornhill was out by the lake again on Thursday morning to see if the birds were out hunting for another meal.